The Adventure Pals is a quirky game about friendship involving a small boy and the crazy adventures he goes on with his giraffe and pet rock. The boy must explore his childhood as he goes on an epic quest to rescue his papa from being turned into a hot dog.

Alone on a remote island stands an ancient weathered castle, steeped in legend and shrouded in mystery. For years it has remained quiet and undisturbed, and yet still the townspeople recall old stories of restless dreams, violent storms, and the eerie glow of ghostly lights dancing in the mist. Recently a mysterious radio signal has begun broadcasting from somewhere within the ancient walls. Something inside the castle has awoken, and someone needs to venture inside to uncover the truth…

Mini Metro is a strategy simulation game about designing a subway map for a growing city. Draw lines between stations and get your trains running. Keep your lines efficient by redrawing them as new stations open. Decide where to use your limited resources. How long can you keep the city moving?

Objects in Space is a modem-punk stealth space-trading game set in Apollo – a huge cluster of star systems dozens of light years away from Earth. You are a lonesome ship’s captain, buying and selling wares in order to keep your bucket of bolts afloat and stay one step ahead of pirates, organised criminals, corrupt governments and shady laws.

Paradigm is a surreal point-and-click adventure game set in the strange and post-apocalyptic world of Krusz; a land inspired by a mix of Eastern Europe and the 70’s and 80’s. You play as the unattractive yet over-confident mutated Paradigm, who must prevail through inconvenient trials to overcome the insecure-yet-tyrannical sloth antagonist, Olof! Imagine a cross between The Mighty Boosh, Lucas Arts adventures and Fallout.

Wildfire is a stealth platformer where you have the ability to control the elements of fire, water, and earth. As this rare latent power unexpectedly manifests within you, you’ll find yourself pursued by a deadly army of swordswomen, skilled archers, and their vicious trained animals who fear what you are capable of. Sneak in shadows, creep through tall grass, and conceal yourself in smoke as you summon fire to terrify your foes. Douse infernos with water or freeze enemies in ice. Grow grass to hide in or vines to reach new heights. Use your enemies’ fear against them to create opportunities to slip past, or trick them into their own demise – but be careful that the fires you start don’t grow out of control and scorch everything in their path – including you!

Infinity Wars: Reborn is a digital collectable card game where you choose your faction, collect cards and battle your friends to victory or complete campaigns. You battle simultaneously with your opponent, having you create strategies to predict and contrast the enemy. Infinity Wars: Reborn comes from Queensland developers Lightmare Studios.

GoatPunks is a 2-4 player, multiplayer/party king-of-the-hill style game where you battle as… goats! Badass goats at that. Made by one-man-band Alberto Santiago at Blue Mountains based Studio Canvas, GoatPunks was one of our highlights from last year’s PAX Australia and since then has travelled across the world, attending SXSW in Austin, Texas.

Swordy was a favourite title at PAX Australia last year as the physics based party brawler. It returns this year in early access and with a single player campaign announced for its fans. Swordy is brought to us by FrogShark from Auckland, New Zealand.

Hand of Fate 2 is the sequel to Defiant Development’s action RPG, and is making its first appearance at PAX Australia this year! The game revolves around a card dealer who shapes your gameplay experience with the hand he draws. It includes “third-person combat, high-risk high-reward minigames or Tabletop RPG-style decision making”.

Dismantle: Construct Carnage by Great Helm is a local multiplayer brawler which doesn’t finish until every limb has been disassembled from you or your opponents’ bodies. The game features customizable characters, abilities, and general aesthetic choices. Vote for it on Steam Greenlight!

Ticket to Earth by Robot Circus is one of the games to receive Film Victorian funding to aid its development. Aside from the aesthetically charming ars-style, Ticket to Earth is described as having a “Match 3 RPG x Positional Strategy” style to combat. Players move across the board by following paths created by matching colours.

Dead Static Drive is a new title to PAX Aus this year, which boasts a very unique art-style, and a lot of driving. The game’s developer, Mike Blackney describes it as a Grand Theft Cthulu which features driving around a spooky United States, on a mission to save the world.

Goblins of Elderstone by Lost Goblin is a new game to the city building genre. It involves creating and nurturing a tribe of Goblins, duking it out against other races, raiding dungeons, and ruling your population to victory. Goblins of Elderstone is currently on Kickstarter and close to reaching its goal of $40,000.

Coming from Sun-Studios, Armed with Wings: Rearmed returns to PAX Australia after being a part of the PAX Indie Showcase last year. It’s a 2-D action/puzzle-platformer based in the dark world of Black Mist.

The colourful, Artful Escape of Francis Vendetti is a narrative-driven action/adventure game that includes the awesomeness of guitar solos and laser light shows. It comes from Melbourne-based developers Beethoven & Dinosaur.

Damsel is developed by Brisbane-based developers Screwtape Studios and is an action platformer where you play as Damsel, keeping the world safe for overwhelming forces of evil through over 150 missions.

Western Press is one of many games that Surprise Attack Games. It’s a frontier-themed dueling game for Mac and PC. You can play in tournaments of 16 real or AI players, in online duels/firefights or 1v1.

In Orwell from Surprise Attack Games, you’re Big Brother. You have to investigate the lives of civilians in a modern, digital setting to find out if civilisation is in trouble and if these people are the terrorists you’ve heard about.

Blockpocalypse is a multiplayer, party platformer where your goal is to… well… outlive your friends in the apocalypse by fighting and forging paths across the 2D landscape, through the debris of the burning world.

The Incredible Journey of You and I returns to PAX Australia this year after becoming one of our favourites from last year. It’s a 2-player, co-op, one or two controllers, colour puzzle experience from Canberra-based couple team Shy Kids Club.

Canberra based Echidna Studios brings Merchants & Mercenaries to PAX Australia this year. It’s a ‘turn-based strategy game trapped in the framework of a real-time game’, meaning it’s like a board game, but without the turns!

Stellar Shift is a faced-paced, first-person shooter,kind of bullet hell game where time slows down if you’re close to the ammo shot by your friends… I mean, enemies. It’s created by Canberra-based studio, Bunny Bit Games.

FORTS FROM EARTHWORK GAMES

Forts is a real-time strategy game where you must build up your fort to bring down your opponents. They return to PAX after being one of our favourites last year. EarthWork Games hails from Brisbane.